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I have a board game night tomorrow, and a friend asked if Catan plays with three. It does, I said, as does any other game in the universe, could we play one of those first?

It's a great game to start playing with, but I find it hits overplay saturation quickly. That said, one of these days I am going to play it with my planned deck of dice (no weird cards doing other stuff, people get hands to choose what to play, or alternately they can choose any card open on the table) and I am going to see if the game gets better because it is more strategic and less random or worse because somehow you still end up with 5 sheep and no iron and you cannot blame the dice.

I used to love Catan, and it was several years of occasional play before I moved all the way to hate. (I hate Carcassonne even more, but play it surprisingly often via my iDevice -- it has such a good interface. Any other players?)

So, I am a fan of Pandemic because I love coop games. It takes forever to set up, which is fine except when you lose in three rounds. But still, such fun.

I like Power Grid and Tigris & Euphrates on those rare occasions I have a brain. A huge brain, with no sleep deficit.

I love Fjords and Taluva as two player games. Fresco, too, in part because it's so pretty, and in part because it has an awesome turn mechanic.

Stone Age is probably the game I play most often because it's pretty good for a mix of people.

I enjoy Settlers as long as you are playing with people who can stand to not take themselves super seriously. I have a friend who gets jackassy about both Settlers and poker and complains when he claims he's playing it better than anyone else and yet is still losing. I can really only play one game of it per day though - after that, it just gets too repetitive.

Not a Euro-style game, but in terms of indie games, I really enjoy Flux and Gother than Thou. I was introduced to Gother than Thou by a goth and it's a very funny send-up/love letter to goth culture. They're both card games.

LOVE Pandemic. Husband doesn't like playing with me because he feels like "cooperative" means that I dictate where his piece "should" go next. I'm trying to work on that. It's an overabundance of exuberance, I swear!!

We play Oregon a lot on Yucata.de. I think they have Stone Age, too. We played Stone Age in real space once, but the smell of the animal skin cup gave me some kind of allergic reaction. o.O

A book about Settlers of Catan? Doesn't beat my bafflement over the current production of a theater-release movie based on the Battleship game, but it comes close.

I do like Catan, but I don't play it too often. The one friend I have who's wild about it played it a lot, and is very good at knowing at all times what cards everyone has in their hand at any time. I hate playing like that. I don't like quite a few cardgames because they're all about counting which cards you have, have been played, and which are still in play. Especially if I must at the same time keep up with what the other played on which turn and what that implies for what (s)he still has left. So yeah, I generally lose those games with such a difference that it stops being entertaining.

The eurogame I really like is Small World. It's a bit like Risk in that you must conquer areas, but you play using very few dice rolls, get a wide range of fantasy races combined with special powers to choose from, and when your current race is running out of steam (because you lost a few army tokens and the rest is busy holding on to your previous conquests), you can put your current race in decline where you still score points but can't attack anymore, and pick a new race.

I liked Small World okay, but see my player order issues. Then I played Vinci, the game it was based on, and adored it. Vinci is, of course, out of print. Toss the stupid cup for Stone Age and try again -- it's a very good game to play.

I might have been known to be very, um, assertive in my suggestions for Pandemic. Which works fine against other people who play a lot of games, and is miserable for people who don't.

somehow you still end up with 5 sheep and no iron and you cannot blame the dice.

This is an excellent phrase even though I have no idea what it means.

I know of Catan by reputation only, although a relative once said I should come by and play sometimes. And I know Carcassone by name, but nothing else. The rest of these machinations are an utter mystery to me and I suspect sorcery may be involved.

I've played Power Grid. You build power plants and use the money you receive from them to buy coal, oil, and nuclear stuff to keep powering them, as well as to expand your utility empire into other areas.

The new Settlers of America is a nice update with many of the negative play experiences of the original Settlers softened. You can always settle somewhere, and you always get something no matter what the roll (though by late game some people might be getting more than you)

No love for Dominion? Best game ever, and gets better with every expansion. The base game comes with 25 different cards, you play with 10 at a time, so there are a lot of different set-ups, a whole lot of differnt ways for the cards to interact. You get expansions, and there are a whole lot more options. You can play a dozen games without seeing the same card twice. And games only take about 40 minutes. So you don't spend an hour feeling like you are hoplessly losing, which can happen in Catan pretty easily.

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